D.C. landlords say they need more help managing a minority of permanent supportive housing tenants whose mental health or addiction struggles create problems.
One man was caught on video starting a fire in his apartment building. Another punched an elderly woman in the face. Another was the target of a police raid, accused by officers of hosting a drug den.
“I’m paying my rent, and I’m a civically engaged citizen, and instead of giving me more protection, I feel more vulnerable, and it’s just not fair,” said Reginald Black, a voucher holder who says his apartment building in the 16th Street Heights neighborhood has been overrun by drug sales. Two program participants there have been the subject of police drug raids and face months-old eviction cases — yet they are still there.
Security cameras soon showed investigators what had happened. Building resident Chris McMillan had carried his microwave down to the bottom-floor trash room, put a lithium battery inside and started it up, video shows.summoned as McMillan walked around the building with a stun gun and assaulted one of his neighbors with bear spray, records show.
The District’s permanent supportive housing program claims an approach known as “housing first” — immediate housing followed by intensive services to help people work toward goals like stability and sobriety. To be eligible, a participant must be chronically homeless and have a disabling condition such as addiction or mental illness.
“One piece of it is that there are certain folks who could thrive if they got more services,” Frumin said, “and that’s not always happening in the way that it should.”Craig London, a landlord who has leased multifamily buildings for nearly two decades, said the city needs more buildings with intensive case management on-site.
Miller, who did not have a lawyer, shook his head. “There’s no traffic going on in my house,” he told the judge. The vast majority of eviction cases are for nonpayment of rent, rather than alleged lease violations, although the proportion of lease violation cases is growing. Last year, 7,709 nonpayment cases were filed in D.C., down steeply from about 30,000 in the years between 2012 and 2019. The drop was in part caused by statutory changes, including a new minimum of $600 in unpaid rent required before a case could be brought, court officials say.
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